Singapore Open: Sindhu, Prannoy, Saina advance to quarterfinals; Mithun bows out

Singapore, July 14 (IANS): Top Indian shuttlers P.V. Sindhu, H.S. Prannoy and Saina Nehwal advanced to the quarterfinals of the Singapore Open 2022 after registering hard-fought wins in their second-round matches, here on Thursday.

World No. 7 Sindhu came from a game down in her women’s singles match to defeat world No 59 Thuy Linh Nguyen of Vietnam 19-21, 21-19, 21-18 in one hour and six minutes.

Sindhu was caught off-guard by her lower-ranked opponent in the first game and was in a spot of bother, trailing 19-17 in the second game. However, she rallied to score four consecutive points and took the match into the decider.

Riding the momentum, the two-time Olympic medallist took a 9-3 lead in the third game but Thuy Linh Nguyen cut it to 11-10 heading into the break. Both players contested fiercely for the remainder of the match and eventually, it was the experienced Sindhu who progressed to the quarterfinals of the BWF Super 500 badminton tournament.

In the men’s singles, India’s Thomas Cup hero H.S. Prannoy, ranked 19th, also scripted a comeback to upset world No. 4 Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei 21-14, 20-22, 21-18 in one hour and nine minutes.

The Indian shuttler went down in the first game but overcame a four-point deficit in the second to keep his quarterfinal chances alive. Trailing 11-6 at the break in the third game, Prannoy chipped away eight of the next 11 points to level the score at 14-all. The Indian shuttler kicked off from there on to storm into his fourth successive quarterfinals.

On the other hand, London 2012 bronze medallist Saina Nehwal upset world No. 9 He Bing Jiao of China 21-19, 11-21, 21-17 in 58 minutes to make her first quarter-final of the year. The last time Saina progressed beyond the round of 16 was at the Orleans Masters back in March 2021.

However, Mithun Manjunath, who beat world championships silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth on Wednesday, went down to Ireland’s world No. 42 Nhat Nguyen 10-21, 21-18, 16-21. Ashmita Chaliha also bowed out after a 9-21, 13-21 loss to Chinese shuttler Han Yue.

In men’s doubles, India’s M.R. Arjun and Dhruv Kapila also made the final eight after beating Malaysian sixth seeds Nur Izzuddin and Goh Sze Fei 18-21, 24-22, 21-18 in a one hour and five-minute long match.

However, the other two Indian pairs in action — Nithin HV and S Ram Poorvisha — in mixed doubles and Pooja Dandu and Arathi Sara Sunil in women’s doubles also bowed out.